Punt Road Oval | |
 | |
 Interactive map of Swinburne Centre | |
| Former names | Richmond Cricket Ground ME Bank Centre |
|---|---|
| Location | Punt Road,East Melbourne, Victoria |
| Coordinates | 37°49′20″S144°59′16″E / 37.82222°S 144.98778°E /-37.82222; 144.98778 |
| Owner | City of Melbourne |
| Operator | Richmond Football Club |
| Capacity | 2,800[1] |
| Surface | Grass |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | 1855 |
| Opened | 1856 |
| Tenants | |
Administration & Training (1885–present)
Melbourne Football Club (VFL/AFL) (1942–1946; 1956) Western Bulldogs (AFLW) (2022) | |
 Interactive map of Punt Road Oval | |
| Ground information | |
| International information | |
| Only women's Test | 9 February 1991: Australia v India |
| First WODI | 11 December 1988: Australia v England |
| Last WODI | 17 December 1988: Australia v New Zealand |
| As of 8 September 2020 Source:CricketArchive | |
Punt Road Oval, also known as theRichmond Cricket Ground or known by naming rights sponsorship as theSwinburne Centre, is anAustralian rules football ground and a formercricket oval located within theYarra Park precinct ofEast Melbourne, Victoria, situated a few hundred metres to the east of theMelbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
The oval is a former venue of theVictorian Football League (now Australian Football League), with 544 VFL/AFL premiership matches played there between 1908 and 1964. The venue is the training and administrative headquarters of theRichmond Football Club, and also hosts the club's reserves and women's premiership matches.
In October 1855, an application was made for theRichmond Cricket Club to play matches on theRichmond paddock next to the site occupied by theMelbourne Cricket Club. The first documentedcricket match on the oval was played on 27 December 1856. The venue remained the home ground for theRichmond Cricket Club until the end of the 2010/11 season. In 2011/12, the club moved toCentral Reserve,Glen Waverley.
It was used as the home ground by theRichmond Football Club in theVictorian Football Association (VFA) from 1885 to 1907 then in theVictorian Football League (VFL) from 1908 to 1964. It was also used by theMelbourne Football Club during and immediately afterWorld War II, when the MCG became a military base. Not until late 1946 were Melbourne able to play the MCG again. Inround 4 of the 1956 season, Melbourne played a one off home game at Punt Road against Fitzroy, this time due to renovations at the MCG in preparation for the1956 Summer Olympics. Owing to the arrangement of the draw for 1942,South Melbourne played one home game there againstHawthorn when Richmond had the bye.
After the 1964 season, the capacity of the venue was to be reduced to only 22,000, after much of the outer was to be lost to the widening by 50 ft ofPunt Road, a notorious traffic bottleneck. Under the stewardship of PresidentRay Dunn, Richmond negotiated to move its home games to theMelbourne Cricket Ground starting from 1965. The last seniorVFL game was played at the venue on 22 August 1964, betweenRichmond andHawthorn, where Richmond was beaten by 43 points. The club retained the venue as its training and administrative base, despite moving its home games.[2]
In November 1999 it hosted aMercantile Mutual Cup match between Victoria and A.C.T.
NB: In 2017, Richmond's reserves team exceeded the above record for highest score and winning margin - Richmond 33.21 (219) def. North Ballarat 4.7 (31) - in Round 1 of the VFA/VFL.
The ground is still used for training by theRichmond Football Club and it remains the club's administrative headquarters. A statue of Tigers legendJack Dyer is outside the ground. A $20 million redevelopment was completed in 2011. The redeveloped sports facilities at Punt Road Oval accommodate a range of business and community sports organisations, including Klim Swim, theVRI Fencing Club and the Indigenous Youth Education Centre known as the Korin Gamaji Institute.
The naming rights for the ground were then sold to ME Bank. In 2017 it was commercially re-branded as theSwinburne Centre at Punt Road Oval.[3]
Since being re-established in 2014, theRichmond reserves team has played itsVFL home games at the venue. The club'sVFL Women's team, which began playing in 2018 though was dissolved at the end of the following season, also played home matches at the venue. The Richmond senior women's team, of theAFL Women's competition, played their first home match at Punt Road on 31 January 2021, after playing the previous season home matches at the larger capacityPrinces Park inCarlton.[4]
When Richmond defeatedAdelaide in the2017 Grand Final to win their first flag in 37 years, the venue hosted an official Richmond viewing party that attracted 15,000 people.[5]
In November 2020 the Richmond Football Club announced its intention to redevelop the venue. The plans included a larger playing surface, demolishing the historic Jack Dyer Stand to make way for a new grandstand with public seating and amenities, and construction of additional playing facilities and a function space. Initially valued at $60 million, the redevelopment received approximately half the necessary funding from theVictorian andAustralian governments, with the remaining amount needing to be raised the AFL, club members and benefactors.[6] One year later the club unveiled the designs and schematics for the proposal, with the new stand situated on the carpark and featuring two levels of seating, including some undercover, boosting the ground's capacity to 8,000. In addition the designs included enhanced facilities for players, function and community spaces and underground carparking for 280 vehicles.[7] Demolition of the grandstand and subsequent construction of the new facility commenced in mid-2025, and is expected to conclude by late 2027.[8] At this point the cost of the upgrade increased to $85 million, as the club explored options to raise an additional $25 million to fund a second facility located adjacent to the grandstand, which would house a new space for community programs and administrative offices.[8][9]
